In Part II of this three-part series, I venture out of the high-end chef bubble, and into some very real, and very heated debates about the cultural appropriation of Mexican food. Is Enrique Olvera right that food belongs to everyone, or is that just a free pass for powerful chefs to exploit the culinary traditions of minority groups? What responsibilities do foreign chefs like Rick Bayless have to the indigenous communities that they took their recipes from? And then there’s the really hard question for Mexico, and all countries with tortured histories of colonization: Does the appropriation of indigenous food unify people from very different backgrounds? Or is it exploitative—a way for elites to cherry-pick parts of indigenous culture for their own use—while leaving systemic inequalities intact? This episode is ostensibly about food, but it’s also about so much more. 

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Vicente Fox was President of Mexico from 2000-2006. In this wide-ranging interview, he opens up about his campaign to legalize marijuana and curb the power of drug cartels, his concerns about Mexico's democratic future under President López Obrador, and the migrant surge at Mexico's northern and southern borders. And I pressed him on some of the contradictions in his record, which made for some revealing, if slightly testy, exchanges. To check out a video of the interview, head to our Lost in Mexico YouTube channel!

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Instagram: @lostinmexico.podcast and @nita.rao0112
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Website: www.lostinmexico.com

Mexican food is complex, delicious, and ... divisive. In this three-part series, I dive into the raging debate about the cultural appropriation of Mexican food, asking Mexicans from across the spectrum—high-end chefs, traditional indigenous cooks, and anti-racism activists—what they think about outsiders profiting from their traditional dishes. This series challenged so many of my assumptions: about how racism plays out in a context very different to the U.S., about the Western obsession with individual genius, and about what respecting another culture actually means. 

In this week’s episode, Part I, I speak to Mexico’s most famous chef, Enrique Olvera, who has been accused of cultural appropriation for selling mole developed by indigenous communities from the State of Oaxaca in his slick Mexico City restaurant. 

Instagram: @lostinmexico.podcast and @nita.rao0112
Facebook: @lostinmexico
Website: www.lostinmexico.com